Shonda Rhimeshttp://www.adweek.com/taxonomy/term/8587/all
enHow TV Shows Are Beaming Over the Supreme Court's Gay Marriage Rulinghttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/how-tv-shows-are-beaming-over-supreme-courts-gay-marriage-ruling-165608
Chris Ariens<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_Jun/got-scotus-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
From the White House to Westeros, from Litchfiled Pen to McKinley High, your favorite TV shows have been sharing the love all day following this morning&#39;s Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states.</p>
<p>
We start with the ladies from Litchfield Pen:</p>
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Today is a good day. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveWins?src=hash">#LoveWins</a> <a href="http://t.co/h0WM7CXxUO">pic.twitter.com/h0WM7CXxUO</a></p>
&mdash; Orange Is the New... (@OITNB) <a href="https://twitter.com/OITNB/status/614480411918512128">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Modern Family went with Mitch and Cam, natch:</p>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveWins?src=hash">#LoveWins</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ModernFamily?src=hash">#ModernFamily</a> <a href="http://t.co/eltDG2Gf22">pic.twitter.com/eltDG2Gf22</a></p>
&mdash; Modern Family (@ModernFam) <a href="https://twitter.com/ModernFam/status/614472702510952448">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
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And from Brooklyn 99, Capt. Holt and husband Kevin Cozner:</p>
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Today is a celebration. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveWins?src=hash">#LoveWins</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brooklyn99?src=hash">#Brooklyn99</a> <a href="http://t.co/HhRwwJQ7pC">pic.twitter.com/HhRwwJQ7pC</a></p>
&mdash; Brooklyn Nine-Nine (@Brooklyn99FOX) <a href="https://twitter.com/Brooklyn99FOX/status/614454620438433792">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p>
While the ruling doesn&#39;t extend to Westeros, Renly is proud:</p>
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Be proud. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/equality?src=hash">#equality</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SCOTUSMarriage?src=hash">#SCOTUSMarriage</a> <a href="http://t.co/W0wC7rUjDT">pic.twitter.com/W0wC7rUjDT</a></p>
&mdash; Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) <a href="https://twitter.com/GameOfThrones/status/614441996774699008">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Two Shonda Rhimes shows deliver the message with a similar look:</p>
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Equality for all. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveWins?src=hash">#LoveWins</a> <a href="http://t.co/SUTDInjnpq">pic.twitter.com/SUTDInjnpq</a></p>
&mdash; Greys Anatomy (@GreysABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/GreysABC/status/614479667261784064">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Equality for all. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveWins?src=hash">#LoveWins</a> <a href="http://t.co/5SmSqiEzfk">pic.twitter.com/5SmSqiEzfk</a></p>
&mdash; Scandal (@ScandalABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScandalABC/status/614479237991501824">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Even programs no longer in production, but which have been supportive of the cause all along, shared the love:</p>
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Filled with glee! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveWins?src=hash">#LoveWins</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveIsLove?src=hash">#LoveIsLove</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Glee?src=hash">#Glee</a> <a href="http://t.co/AH4Wjwa5x0">pic.twitter.com/AH4Wjwa5x0</a></p>
&mdash; GLEE (@GLEEonFOX) <a href="https://twitter.com/GLEEonFOX/status/614478973473435648">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
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President Obama&#39;s sentiment was retweeted by President Underwood, adding his own devious twist:</p>
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Sometimes you have to take what is rightfully yours. <a href="https://t.co/gAjomxHC8j">https://t.co/gAjomxHC8j</a></p>
&mdash; House of Cards (@HouseofCards) <a href="https://twitter.com/HouseofCards/status/614474647292264448">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
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And, really, how could you not?</p>
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How could you NOT fall in love with this guy?! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LastManOnEarth?src=hash">#LastManOnEarth</a> <a href="http://t.co/FsEoG0HBsB">pic.twitter.com/FsEoG0HBsB</a></p>
&mdash; Last Man On Earth (@LastManFOX) <a href="https://twitter.com/LastManFOX/status/614489700619816960">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>TelevisionGame of ThronesGay MarriageGleeGrey's AnatomyHouse of CardsChris AriensNetworksOrange is the New BlackScandalSCOTUSShonda RhimesFri, 26 Jun 2015 20:24:48 +0000165608 at http://www.adweek.comHow Lee Daniels Drew on His Own Life to Shape Empire, TV's Surprise Hithttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/how-lee-daniels-drew-his-own-life-shape-empire-tvs-surprise-hit-164824
Janet Stilson<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_May/fea-lee-daniels-01-2015.jpg"> <p>
Scratch the surface of <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/8-ways-fox-could-keep-empires-momentum-going-after-season-finale-163541" target="_blank">Fox&#39;s monster hit drama Empire</a> and you&#39;ll find a whole lot of truths that are based on the experiences of Lee Daniels, who created the series with his partner, Danny Strong.</p>
<p>
Just as fictional hip-hop artist Jamal Lyon was beaten as a child by his homophobic father, so, too, was Daniels, who serves as Empire&#39;s executive producer, writer and sometimes director. (Unlike Lucious Lyon, Empire&#39;s father figure and head of a powerful music company&mdash;portrayed with steely-eyed grit by actor Terrence Howard&mdash;Daniels&#39; father was a Philadelphia cop.)</p>
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Daniels&#39; work has won fans and awards. &nbsp;<span class="meta-credit">Photo: Sheryl Nields</span></p>
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<p>
The show&#39;s most popular character, stiletto-heeled Cookie (Taraji Henson), got some of her kick-ass qualities from Daniels&#39; &quot;corrupt politician&quot; grandmother and his drug-dealing sister. Then, there&#39;s Daniels&#39; mother, who once beat him with a broom for misbehaving, just as Cookie beat her son Hakeem.</p>
<p>
Daniels shared these stories and much more in a recent interview with Adweek. Notably, he discussed the &quot;trauma&quot; he experienced creating the series for Fox, which involved a far different process than he had as maker of such movies as Monster&#39;s Ball, Precious and The Butler.</p>
<p>
<strong>Adweek: How hard was it to sell Empire? Did it take a while for you and Danny Strong to feel the Fox love?</strong><br />
Lee Daniels: No. There was a bidding war. Isn&#39;t that crazy? We were red hot, Danny and I, coming off The Butler. We love working together. He wanted to do it as a film and I wanted to make money, so I saw it as a TV show. After The Butler, I was blown away by the amount of people who saw the story. It touched so many people&#39;s lives. So I thought, wow, what would happen if we told the story in people&#39;s homes?<br />
<br />
<strong>Did you feel right from the start that it was going to be such a hit?</strong><br />
No. I don&#39;t pay much attention to numbers. I&#39;m so busy working that I don&#39;t come out of my bubble to know the insanity and the &quot;Cookie-mania.&quot; I&#39;m nervous about what my next episode is going to be, or what my next season is going to be like. I don&#39;t read reviews unless my publicist tells me, &quot;You really should take a look at this.&quot; I don&#39;t want it to affect the work.</p>
<p>
But when I finally did come up for air, I turned to my mother and said, &quot;Mom, what do you make of this?&quot; And she said, &quot;Well, you know, when you did your first movie [Monster&#39;s Ball], you got that girl [Halle Berry] an Academy Award. And that made history. So where else are you going to go from there?&quot;<br />
<br />
<strong>So now you&#39;re working on a biographical film about Richard Pryor?</strong><br />
Yes. And I&#39;m simultaneously writing another TV show.<br />
<br />
<strong>Do you see yourself as eventually becoming a Dick Wolf or <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/shonda-rhimes-sounds-social-about-being-mischaracterized-angry-black-woman-160267" target="_blank">Shonda Rhimes</a>, with lots of series on the air at the same time?</strong><br />
Empire was a very traumatic experience for me. It was very schizophrenic, and it wasn&#39;t what I expected it to be. I think I&#39;ve learned to become a better filmmaker because you have to make decisions immediately. You don&#39;t have time to ponder. And if you don&#39;t make those decisions, there are 80 people that will. And all 80 people have a say so. That, in itself, was shocking to my system.</p>
<p>
I have a very specific way of working. I&#39;ve never done a studio movie, let alone worked for a network. Every one of my films has been independently financed. I&#39;ve been responsible for every frame that you see&mdash;and now I&#39;ve got these people to talk to [laughs].</p>
<p>
I had no intentions of going back [to television after Empire]. But I must be a masochist because once I looked at the success and all the people that were affected by it, I thought, OK, maybe the next time it will be easier.</p>
<p>
I don&#39;t profess to be Shonda Rhimes by any stretch of the imagination, or Dick Wolf. They&#39;re icons. I&#39;m a filmmaker. They&#39;ve really done something and I guess I have, too, but I don&#39;t see myself as astute, with a body of [TV] work like those two people.<br />
<br />
<strong>I&#39;ve been talking with people about Empire and other shows on TV that feature people of color, and there seems to be a sense that we&#39;re moving into a new era where TV is much more inclusive of multicultural talent.</strong><br />
Really? I can&#39;t tell you what excites me more, that I get my stories told [with Empire]&mdash;they&#39;re 80 percent of the show&mdash;or to look out in my writers room and see a roomful of African Americans. I think with Empire, we&#39;ve been able to touch Hollywood in a way it hasn&#39;t been touched before. And that&#39;s the kind of shit I can take to my grave.<br />
<br />
<strong>What about the 80 percent?</strong><br />
It&#39;s just part of the process. I can&#39;t direct every episode. I&#39;d be batshit if I did. I directed two episodes. Then I had to go write Richard Pryor. The 20 percent is a roomful of writers. Those are not all my words up there. They&#39;re my ideas, but not all my words, and I&#39;m not on the ground directing. Everybody has a different interpretation of my words.</p>
<p>
The pilot is 100 percent me; the first episode is 99 percent me. But the actors understand the world that Danny and I created, and that&#39;s key.<br />
<br />
<strong>Speaking of actors, Terrence Howard is riveting as Lucious Lyon. Who is his character based on?</strong><br />
Many shades of me. I can&#39;t create anything that I haven&#39;t lived. He&#39;s a lot a bit of my dad, and the entrepreneurs that I&#39;ve grown to know. He&#39;s a lot a bit of Berry Gordy, a lot a bit of Joe Kennedy. When you think of the Kennedys, they are the American dream. Joe was bootlegging and doing all sorts of shady shit, and he produced the president of the United States.<br />
<br />
<strong>What about Cookie? You&#39;re a part of her, obviously, but what about your mom?</strong><br />
No. Although I do call her the original Cookie. Hmmm. It&#39;s so hard to explain. The broom beating happened. That was my mother.<br />
<br />
<strong>What did you do to deserve that?</strong><br />
I used to roller skate, and I would climb onto this tree and go out on this branch and go flying out into the middle of the street. And my mother said, &quot;You&#39;re going to break your arm.&quot; I kept doing it, and I broke my arm. I thought the world stopped. I had a cast and I felt so special.</p>
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<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/2015_May/fea-lee-daniels-03-2015.jpg" />
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Daniels says he can&#39;t create anything he hasn&#39;t lived.&nbsp;<span class="meta-credit">Photo: Sheryl Nields</span></p>
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<p>
When you have a lot of siblings, you always do something to feel special. I was beating my sisters up&mdash;I was a total jerk. I would always hold my cast up in front of me when my mother would go to slap me. And one day I held my cast up and she had a broom and she went for me [laughs]. I called the police, and the police came. Back in those days, it wasn&#39;t the same. My mother told the police, &quot;I suggest that you take him now, because [if you don&#39;t] when you come back&mdash;and you will come back&mdash;he&#39;s going to be in a body bag.&quot;</p>
<p>
So yes, my mother&#39;s a little bit of Cookie, but really my grandmother is Cookie, [as is] my sister. My grandmother was a corrupt politician in the &#39;60s. She had many of the judges in her pocket in Philadelphia&mdash;and she carried a gun. She would get blacks to come out and vote. And my sister was a drug dealer, as many of my friends were. It was the only way we knew how to make a living&mdash;that or robbing the system that we lived in. That&#39;s the world we lived in.</p>
<p>
People deny what&#39;s going on in Baltimore. I&#39;m so blessed living the life I live, you know? My work reminds me&mdash;it makes me never forget. And I mustn&#39;t forget. The minute that success gets to me, then I&#39;m lost. I&#39;ve done everything I can to make sure my kids don&#39;t have to worry or be hungry or be in the same place that I was. And I regret that now because I don&#39;t think my son realizes that he&#39;s black. He&#39;s 19, and he doesn&#39;t realize that he&#39;s a black man in America.<br />
<br />
<strong>What do you mean? What do you regret in raising him?</strong><br />
Ignoring why taxis weren&#39;t picking us up, &hellip; just shooting by us in New York City. And shielding him from the truth. It&#39;s politically incorrect to talk about racism in Hollywood. But that&#39;s not the real world. That&#39;s not 90 percent of America. And people think that we&#39;ve got Obama in and things have changed. In fact, I think that only inflamed things.<br />
<br />
<strong>Well, one of the great aspects of Empire is that it shows African Americans in true seats of power.</strong><br />
Yeah. The only issue I have with the show is the push-back I&#39;ve gotten from African Americans on the depiction of the drug thing. I just tell my truth in my world. And I&#39;m not going to lie to placate the masses.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<em>Photography: Sheryl Nields; Grooming: Roxanne Saffaie; Styling: Nonja Mckenzie/Opus Beauty; Set Design: Nathan Carden</em></p>
TelevisionAfrican-AmericansBaltimoreBarack ObamaDanny StrongDick WolfJanet StilsonHalle BerryLee DanielsLee Daniels' The ButlerMagazine ContentMonster's BallPreciousRichard PryorShonda RhimesTaraji HensonTerrence HowardUpfrontMon, 18 May 2015 04:00:04 +0000164824 at http://www.adweek.comMulticultural Talent Is Surging on TV and Winning Mainstream Audienceshttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/multicultural-talent-surging-tv-and-winning-mainstream-audiences-164826
Janet Stilson<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/fresh-off-boat-hed-2015_0.jpg"> <p>
Hardly anyone was more surprised than Dana Walden at the ratings surge Fox midseason entrant Empire enjoyed following its Jan. 7 debut. She expected a lift but not to the degree it did shoot up. But Walden, co-chairman and co-CEO of the Fox Television Group, wasn&#39;t alone&mdash;each week, the entire TV industry let out a gasp of surprise as Empire&#39;s young adult demos kept climbing to north of a 5, territory so few shows ever see.</p>
<p>
Flash-forward, and something else quite striking was going on at the Twentieth Century Fox Television studio. Two out of three freshman series it produced for this past season that featured multicultural talent were renewed.</p>
<p>
It may not seem like a large number of shows, but &quot;that&#39;s a pretty high ratio of success, given the normal track records,&quot; explains Walden. Besides Empire, the trio <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/abcs-success-diversity-comes-focusing-creators-not-just-stars-162384" target="_blank">includes two ABC shows</a>: Fresh Off the Boat, featuring a Taiwanese family experiencing culture shock, and Latina-centric Cristela (which didn&#39;t make it).</p>
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Shonda Rhimes will add an FX limited series on the<br />
Great Migration to her string of ABC hits including<br />
Scandal and Grey&#39;s Anatomy.</p>
</div>
<p>
There&#39;s a veritable tidal wave of <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/multicultural-tvs-success-isnt-about-whites-getting-less-its-about-everyone-getting-more-163736" target="_blank">non-Caucasian talent washing over the general-interest TV landscape</a>&mdash;both in front of and behind the camera. In fact, 2015 may be remembered as the year when multicultural talent was showcased in quantities that suggest this isn&#39;t a passing trend but, rather, represents the dawn of a whole new era. &quot;It&#39;s different, for sure, than in the past. I don&#39;t think it&#39;s a cyclical thing that will go away,&quot; says Dave Campanelli, Horizon Media&#39;s svp, director of national broadcast.</p>
<p>
(It&#39;s ironic, really, that momentum for minorities in TV is finally being reached as real-life protests in Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and other cities demand equal value for black lives.)</p>
<p>
Last year certainly set the stage for this positive trend. ABC introduced the African-American-focused comedy Black-ish to decent ratings, throwing into midseason Fresh Off the Boat, and <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/upfront-upheaval-abc-creates-all-shonda-rhimes-thursday-block-157642" target="_blank">handed its entire Thursday night lineup to Shonda Rhimes</a> (to which she added How to Get Away With Murder alongside her existing hits, Grey&#39;s Anatomy and Scandal).</p>
<p>
&quot;What's been demonstrated by Shonda Rhimes and Empire is that you can have something that's grounded in a multicultural sensibility that delivers a tremendous ROI,&quot; says Esther (ET) Franklin, EVP, head of Americas experience strategy for Starcom MediaVest Group's multicultural division.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Hkjdu0ipL8" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
One could argue that <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/shonda-rhimes-sounds-social-about-being-mischaracterized-angry-black-woman-160267" target="_blank">Rhimes&#39; success</a> had the biggest hand in getting the industry out of its white-bread rut. Because <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/it-builds-momentum-abc-stays-course-conservative-fall-schedule-164699" target="_blank">ABC&#39;s not only returned all those shows to its schedule</a>, it&#39;s adding more diversity to its lineup this coming season. Friday nights will feature Dr. Ken starring the Korean-American comedian Ken Jeong, while midseason will usher in another Rhimes series called The Catch, as well as a remake of Uncle Buck, featuring a largely black cast.</p>
<p>
It&#39;s not that ABC has a diversity &quot;mandate,&quot; explains Channing Dungey, evp of network drama at ABC Entertainment Group. &quot;For us, it&#39;s about diversity, yes, but also about authenticity,&quot; she explains. &quot;We&#39;ve been very focused on reflecting the world we&#39;re living in. It&#39;s something we&#39;ve been placing more and more of a priority on.&quot;</p>
<p>
ABC isn&#39;t alone by any stretch. Many such programs are flooding into the TV ecosystem out of the upfront presentations. &quot;I always thought it would take one big fat hit, and we have that in Empire,&quot; says Fox&#39;s Walden. She and fellow co-chairman and co-CEO Gary Newman are doubling down on that hit by having Empire co-creator Lee Daniels develop a new series, about which neither Walden nor Daniels would reveal details.</p>
<p>
Across its fall schedule, Fox will debut a medical drama titled Rosewood, positioned just before Empire on Wednesdays and centering around a brilliant African-American doctor (Morris Chestnut). It&#39;s also ordered a pilot remake of the successful British series Luther, about the exploits of an extremely gifted homicide detective who is black.</p>
<p>
Though its fall lineup is largely devoid of color, NBC has stocked midseason with a variety of projects reflecting diversity, like Jennifer Lopez&#39;s cop drama Shades of Blue, the Eva Longoria comedy Hot &amp; Bothered and America Ferrera&#39;s Superstore. Meanwhile, the Peacock has given a series order to a semi-autobiographical comedy featuring Jerrod Carmichael, Go Jerrod Go, though it is not slated for the 2015-16 season.</p>
<p>
CBS is arguably the least aggressive of the broadcast networks in cultivating shows led by diverse talent, though coming out of the upfront it has slated a midseason adaptation of the Rush Hour film franchise starring Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. The network is casting relative unknowns in lead roles but sticking with the same pairing of black and Asian actors.</p>
<p>
Among the splashiest TV productions in the works is A+E Networks&#39; remake of Roots, which will be programmed across three channels: A&amp;E, Lifetime and History. Meanwhile, director John Singleton (Shaft, Poetic Justice) is working on a series for FX called Snowfall, about the &#39;80s drug scene in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>
Also for FX, Rhimes has yet another project in the pipeline: a limited series on the Great Migration called The Warmth of Other Suns, which she is working on with African-American director Dee Rees. (This past weekend, HBO premiered Bessie, a Bessie Smith biopic starring Queen Latifah that was directed by Rees, who became a film-festival darling with the indie Pariah.)</p>
<p>
And on the topic of historical adaptations, two projects about the Underground Railroad are underway: WGN America&#39;s Underground is in production and an NBC miniseries, Freedom Run, executive produced by Stevie Wonder, is in development. Also on deck is the HBO comedy series Brothers in Atlanta, whose cast includes Maya Rudolph and Jaden Smith.</p>
<p>
<strong>A Long Time Coming</strong></p>
<p>
To many, tipping mainstream TV into a more diverse direction has taken far longer than reason suggested. &quot;Multiculture has always been thought of as &#39;the other.&#39; Blacks, Hispanics, Asians have all been in separate silos that are completely separate from the general market. And we&#39;ve argued for a long time that that is a very skewed way of looking at the world,&quot; says Adriana Waterston, svp of insights and strategy at Horowitz Research.</p>
<p>
Several major developments over the last year have contributed to television&#39;s multicultural moment.</p>
<p>
The CW&#39;s tongue-in-cheek Hispanic comedy Jane the Virgin helped lift the network&#39;s Monday night ratings. Premium cable also diversified, as two Starz series featured African-American actors: the comedy Survivor&#39;s Remorse and Power, about a nightclub owner and drug lord. (Starz ran promotional spots for Power during Empire.)</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ptI8evHNPSo" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
In the talk-show arena, Comedy Central replaced The Colbert Report (as Stephen Colbert prepares to take over David Letterman&#39;s late-night slot on CBS) with The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore. It also picked the black stand-up comedian Trevor Noah to fill the void in the wake of Jon Stewart&#39;s retirement from The Daily Show (to some controversy when Noah&#39;s prior tweets were criticized by some as culturally insensitive).</p>
<p>
Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, points out that we have been &quot;slouching&quot; toward this new era on the tube for a long time, despite huge successes in the distant past like Roots and The Cosby Show. &quot;There hasn&#39;t been any logical sense to the argument that programs with primarily people of color in the cast or behind the scenes are the kiss of death,&quot; he says.</p>
<p>
<strong>Empire Building</strong></p>
<p>
As for Empire, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/mired-4th-among-adults-18-49-fox-focuses-empires-bright-future-164682" target="_blank">Fox is planning to roll out 18 new episodes</a>, up from 12 in the first season. They will air in two parts, spanning the 2015-16 season.</p>
<p>
There&#39;s a reason for that. The dark-edged marriage of soap operas and hip-hop musicals handily outdelivered Rhimes&#39; shows among key demographic groups when comparing season-to-date performances</p>
<p>
In the 18-34 demo, original episodes of Murder&mdash;which attracts the largest ratings of the Rhimes series&mdash;attracted a 3.16 average C3 rating from the start of the season last September to April 12. Empire averaged a 5.17 from its debut up to April 12. According to Nielsen data supplied by industry sources, the 18-49 numbers were slightly higher for both: 3.68 vs. 5.87, respectively, in the same time periods.</p>
<p>
Another factor is advertising sales&mdash;including the question as to whether or not Fox should continue to limit the number of availabilities. That move reportedly drove 30-second unit prices to as high as $600,000 in the concluding episode of Season 1.</p>
<p>
&quot;I have to wonder if the limited commercials didn&#39;t help viewership and ratings to some extent. I think viewers are tired of seven minutes of commercial breaks,&quot; says Horizon&#39;s Campanelli.</p>
<p>
&quot;We&#39;re still considering how we want to innovate with different commercial formats for Empire and for other programs as well. It&#39;s crucial for our business,&quot; explains Toby Byrne, president of ad sales at Fox Networks Group.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/krlxHu6pAA0" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
Empire will no doubt continue to have an impact in music, too, thanks to executive music producer Timbaland and guest stars next season like Lenny Kravitz and Alicia Keys. Empire&#39;s Season 1 soundtrack debuted at No. 1 on Billboard&#39;s Top 200 chart when it was released March 18, while there were 1.5 million downloads of songs from Empire.</p>
<p>
Bill Carroll, vp, director of content strategy at Katz Television Group, believes it will take a few more seasons to determine whether a multicultural era is now in the making. &quot;The real question will be&mdash;and the real challenge will be&mdash;how creative and how good the shows really are,&quot; Carroll says.</p>
<p>
Others maintain the moment has arrived. &quot;I think this is what we&#39;re going to see out of TV going forward,&quot; says Campanelli. &quot;What&#39;s been great about all this diversity on TV is it hasn&#39;t been &#39;We&#39;re putting on an African-American show.&#39; It&#39;s been about putting on a good quality show that people enjoy watching.&quot;</p>
TelevisionAbcAfrican-AmericanBaltimoreBlack-ishCristelaJanet StilsonEmpireFoxFox Television GroupFresh Off the BoatFXHboHorizon MediaHow to Get Away with MurderJennifer LopezKatz Television GroupKen JeongMagazine ContentNbcScandalShonda RhimesTwentieth Century Fox TelevisionUpfrontMon, 18 May 2015 04:00:04 +0000164826 at http://www.adweek.comABC Plays It Safe at Its Upfront, but Jimmy Kimmel Takes No Prisoners http://www.adweek.com/news/television/abc-plays-it-safe-its-upfront-jimmy-kimmel-takes-no-prisoners-164713
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_May/shonda-rhimes-abc-upfront-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
After <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/it-builds-momentum-abc-stays-course-conservative-fall-schedule-164699" target="_blank">unveiling a 2015-2016 schedule</a> that looked remarkably similar to this season&#39;s, ABC&#39;s upfront presentation today lacked any big surprises.</p>
<p>
But more of the same was just what the advertisers and media buyers assembled at New York&#39;s Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center wanted to hear because that also meant the return of Jimmy Kimmel&#39;s annual upfront roast.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Ben Sherwood, co-chairman, Disney Media Networks, and president, Disney-ABC Television Group, was introduced by How to Get Away With Murder star Viola Davis (&quot;I like to call him Big Ben,&quot; she said). While Sherwood claimed ABC wouldn&#39;t be parsing stats to claim victory in made-up categories, he declared the network &quot;No. 1 in entertainment programming&quot; (by which he meant programming that doesn&#39;t include sports, which NBC, Fox and CBS have in abundance) among adults 18-49.</p>
<p>
In the actual 18-49 stats advertisers pay attention to, however, ABC is in third place, up from last year&#39;s fourth place showing. &quot;ABC has got the momentum, and we like where we&#39;re going,&quot; Sherwood said.</p>
<p>
Geri Wang, president, ABC sales, noted that the network&#39;s audience is up 7 percent this season among adults 18-49 and revealed new initiatives &quot;for data, addressability and transparency.&quot; ABC Unified Insights is a Web dashboard that offers deep analytics at the click of a button, giving advertisers access to audience insights on ABCAllAccess.com.</p>
<p>
ABC is &quot;taking the first step toward addressable advertising&quot; on the linear side, said Wang, targeting ads based on consumer attributes and allowing advertisers to &quot;leverage data to optimize your ABC schedule beyond traditional demographics.&quot;</p>
<p>
Wang also had a digital announcement: &quot;For the first time ever, you can plan, buy and deliver against your audience segment on an impression-by-impression basis&quot; across a portfolio that includes ABC, ABC Family, Disney Media and ESPN Maker Studios.</p>
<p>
&quot;It&#39;s a data match made in heaven,&quot; said Wang. &quot;We&#39;re confident that the more you know about ABC, the better it is for both of us.&quot;</p>
<p>
Paul Lee, president, ABC Entertainment, reiterated many of the same points <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/it-builds-momentum-abc-stays-course-conservative-fall-schedule-164699" target="_blank">he made to reporters Tuesday morning</a>, noting that &quot;to be a great destination, you have to be a great brand&quot; and playing up ABC&#39;s strides with diverse programming. (He proclaimed the network is No. 1 in what it calls &quot;brand halo,&quot; perhaps not hearing Sherwood&#39;s earlier promises about shying away from seemingly meaningless stats.)</p>
<p>
Lee had fewer moves to sell advertisers on than his Fox and NBC counterparts at Monday&#39;s upfronts, given the stability of his schedule. Of the new trailers he screened&mdash;all of which <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/it-builds-momentum-abc-stays-course-conservative-fall-schedule-164699" target="_blank">can be found here</a>&mdash;the audience seemed to be most receptive to new comedy Dr. Ken, starring Ken Jeong, and midseason dramas The Catch (Shonda Rhimes&#39; fourth ABC show) and The Family.</p>
<p>
Lee said that midseason drama Wicked City was &quot;our highest testing pilot of the year with millennials,&quot; adding after the creepy trailer aired, &quot;Millennials, right? What&#39;s wrong with those guys?&quot;</p>
<p>
Lee made sure to give ABC News a shoutout, thanking Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Diane Sawyer and David Muir, which made NBC&#39;s omission of its news division at Monday&#39;s upfront all the more glaring.</p>
<p>
As usual, the highlight of ABC&#39;s upfront&mdash;and the entire broadcast week in general&mdash;was Jimmy Kimmel&#39;s annual roast of the network and its competitors. Among this year&#39;s best lines:</p>
<ul>
<li>
&quot;I talked to Bob Iger, and he said, because we have The Avengers and Star Wars this year, &#39;We don&#39;t need money from you guys.&#39;&quot;</li>
<li>
He noted that NBC claimed it was No. 1 yesterday and ABC was making the same claim today, &quot;which means one of the networks is lying to you, and I&#39;m here to tell you that it&#39;s us.&quot;</li>
<li>
&quot;We have diversity at every level of our organization, except The Bachelor&mdash;we&#39;re gonna keep that one white.&quot;</li>
<li>
&quot;In <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/how-abc-got-its-groove-back-only-partly-because-shonda-rhimes-164036" target="_blank">an interview with Adweek last month</a>, Paul Lee said that ABC&#39;s credit was only partially due to Shonda [Rhimes], which is kind of like saying the success of Thriller is only partially due to Michael Jackson.&quot;</li>
<li>
&quot;Poor Fox, but they do have Empire. Did they mention that at their presentation?&quot;</li>
<li>
&quot;American Idol felt like one of those things that would be around forever&mdash;like herpes.&quot;</li>
</ul>
<p>
Overall, it was a stronger and more memorable routine than usual&mdash;just like ABC&#39;s upfront.</p>
TelevisionAbcGeorge StephanopoulosJimmy KimmelNetworksPaul LeeJason LynchUpfrontUpfrontTue, 12 May 2015 23:21:22 +0000164713 at http://www.adweek.comAs It Builds Momentum, ABC Stays the Course With a Conservative Fall Schedulehttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/it-builds-momentum-abc-stays-course-conservative-fall-schedule-164699
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_May/kermit-gonzo-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
After a season in which ABC&nbsp;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/how-abc-got-its-groove-back-only-partly-because-shonda-rhimes-164036" target="_blank">gained a lot of momentum</a>, thanks in large part to its Shonda Rhimes-fueled TGIT lineup and freshman hits like Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat, the network is making minimal changes to its 2015-2016 prime-time schedule, it announced today.</p>
<p>
&quot;It&#39;s our usual balance of stability and real ambition,&quot; said Paul Lee,&nbsp;president, ABC Entertainment, of a schedule in which four nights of programming remain fully intact: Mondays (Dancing With the Stars and Castle), Wednesdays (comedies The Middle, The Goldbergs, Modern Family and Black-ish, followed by Nashville), Thursdays (its three Rhimes dramas: Grey&#39;s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder) and Saturdays (Saturday Night Football).</p>
<p>
The network will finish the season in third place among adults 18-49 but feels it has the right pieces in place for future growth, particularly with its brand of &quot;smart, emotional, inclusive storytelling,&quot; said Lee, who, true to form, peppered his remarks about the new schedule with words like &quot;fresh,&quot; &quot;noisy,&quot; &quot;buzzworthy&quot; and &quot;muscular.&quot; ABC was also the only one among the big four broadcasters to see a boost in its 18-49 audience this season.</p>
<p>
On Tuesdays, ABC is shifting Fresh Off the Boat to 8:30 p.m. ET in order to kick off the night with The Muppets, back in a prime-time series for the first time since Muppets Tonight ended in 1998. &quot;This is not your grandmother&#39;s Muppets, this is not the old Muppets,&quot; said Lee, explaining that while the original &#39;70s series spoofed variety shows, the new take from The Big Bang Theory executive producer Bill Prady will satirize mockumentaries like The Office and Modern Family.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pfJkusicBa4?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
Marvel&#39;s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. remains on Tuesdays at 9 p.m., followed by Quantico, a new FBI drama set at the training facility about recruits on the base. The show&#39;s star Priyanka Chopra &quot;is a quintessential ABC heroine,&quot; said Lee, adding that the show &quot;tested very well with men,&quot; which should make it a compatible leadout for S.H.I.E.L.D.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zXRDcd_a2eg?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
Midseason, Fresh Off the Boat will return to its 8 p.m. slot to make way for The Real O&#39;Neals, a family comedy starring Martha Plimpton about a Catholic clan whose teenage son comes out as gay.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5FDEW9qoZ6A?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
ABC&#39;s Friday lineup remains nearly the same: Last Man Standing at 8 p.m., Shark Tank at 9 p.m. and 20/20 at 10 p.m. New comedy Dr. Ken starring Ken Jeong (a real-life doctor) as a doctor with no bedside manner, fills the 8:30 p.m. slot vacated by canceled sitcom Cristela.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mTqGbbzxI-I?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
On Sunday, America&#39;s Funniest Home Videos and Once Upon a Time kick off the night, followed by a pair of &quot;big, muscular, broad soap operas.&quot; Oil, at 9 p.m., stars Chace Crawford and Don Johnson and focuses on a North Dakota&nbsp;oil boom. (Lee stressed it&#39;s not a Dallas or Dynasty update.)</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WUrfKsGFWEg?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
At 10 p.m., there&#39;s Of Kings and Prophets, a biblical saga and retelling of the David and Saul story starring Ray Winstone. &quot;This is not your parent&#39;s Sunday school Bible show,&quot; said Lee. &quot;It truly is the original domestic soap opera.&quot;</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rycUElbrXAM?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
ABC is sticking with its standard practice of splitting its full-season shows into two halves and bringing in &quot;gap shows&quot; midseason to fill the hiatuses. Marvel&#39;s Agent Carter will relieve Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., while Quantico will make way for Wicked City, an anthology that follows a different case each season set in a different era of L.A. history. Season 1, which takes place in 1982, centers on a pair of &quot;Bonnie and Clyde serial killers,&quot; said Lee.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j_GTKR7hrgo?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
During Nashville&#39;s hiatus, Secrets and Lies will return for a second season with Juliette Lewis&#39; detective character from the first season tackling a new case. And Rhimes&#39; new show The Catch, a forensic thriller starring The Killing&#39;s Mireille Enos, will step in for How to Get Away With Murder. &quot;She has done it again,&quot; said Lee of Rhimes, who executive produces The Catch but did not create it.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_oANG1XrLqA?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
Of Kings and Prophets will give way to The Family, a drama starring Joan Allen about a politician&#39;s son who comes back from the dead</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bvy0QxHw21g?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
Other midseason shows waiting in the wings include Uncle Buck, a remake of the 1989 John Candy comedy with an African-American cast. &quot;The key to using big feature brands is you have to bring something really fresh,&quot; said Lee of the show&#39;s star,&nbsp;Mike Epps.</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/swihz24aUHI?list=PLDe0CguuqcMA7F06VO63qmZLicS-j1GFt" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
Anthology drama American Crime will return midseason with what Lee called &quot;a total reset&quot;&mdash;new crime, new location and new characters&mdash;with some of the Season 1 cast returning in different roles (much like American Horror Story).</p>
<p>
And despite the high-profile exit of Patrick Dempsey from Grey&#39;s Anatomy last month, Lee says that neither that show, nor the long-running Castle, will be ending next season. &quot;I would like to see them run for many, many years to come,&quot; he said.</p>
<p>
<br />
ABC FALL 2015-2016 SCHEDULE (New programs in ALL CAPS)</p>
<p>
MONDAY<br />
8-10 p.m. &mdash; Dancing With the Stars<br />
10-11 p.m. &mdash; Castle</p>
<p>
TUESDAY<br />
8-8:30 p.m. &mdash; THE MUPPETS<br />
8:30-9 p.m. &mdash; Fresh Off the Boat (new time)<br />
9-10 p.m. &mdash; Marvel&#39;s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.<br />
10-11 p.m. &mdash; QUANTICO</p>
<p>
WEDNESDAY<br />
8-8:30 p.m. &mdash; The Middle<br />
8:30-9 p.m. &mdash; The Goldbergs<br />
9-9:30 p.m. &mdash; Modern Family<br />
9:30-10 p.m. &mdash; Black-ish<br />
10-11 p.m. &mdash; Nashville</p>
<p>
THURSDAY<br />
8-9 p.m. &mdash; Grey&#39;s Anatomy<br />
9-10 p.m. &mdash; Scandal<br />
10-11 p.m. &mdash; How to Get Away With Murder</p>
<p>
FRIDAY<br />
8-8:30 p.m. &mdash; Last Man Standing<br />
8:30-9 p.m. &mdash; DR. KEN<br />
9-10 p.m. &mdash; Shark Tank<br />
10-11 p.m. &mdash; 20/20</p>
<p>
SATURDAY<br />
8-11 p.m. &mdash; Saturday Night Football</p>
<p>
SUNDAY<br />
7-8 p.m. &mdash; America&#39;s Funniest Home Videos<br />
8-9 p.m. &mdash; Once Upon a Time<br />
9-10 p.m. &mdash; OIL<br />
10-11 p.m. &mdash; OF KINGS AND PROPHETS</p>
<p>
MIDSEASON<br />
American Crime, The Bachelor, Beyond the Tank, THE CATCH, THE FAMILY, Galavant, Marvel&#39;s Agent Carter, THE REAL O&#39;NEALS, Secrets and Lies, UNCLE BUCK, WICKED CITY</p>
TelevisionAbcNetworksPaul LeeShonda RhimesThe MuppetsJason LynchUpfrontTue, 12 May 2015 18:06:03 +0000164699 at http://www.adweek.comProducers, Not Actors, Are the Stars of TV Networks' Early Series Pickupshttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/producers-not-actors-are-stars-tv-networks-early-series-pickups-164620
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/producer-stars-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
We&#39;re less than 72 hours from broadcast upfront week, and ahead of revealing their upcoming slates (NBC will be the first out of the gate, announcing its fall schedule on Sunday, followed by Monday morning&#39;s upfront), several of the networks have been making early series orders.</p>
<p>
While little is known yet about these new shows outside of their network loglines&mdash;look for sizzle reels to pop up online by Monday, which will start to fill in the gaps&mdash;they&#39;re most notable for what they are lacking: the big-name actors that routinely headline series pickups.</p>
<p>
Aside from Rob Lowe (Fox comedy The Grinder), John Stamos (Fox comedy Grandfathered) and the Muppets (who will star in an ABC revival from The Big Bang Theory co-creator, and Muppets alum, Bill Prady), the broadcast networks&#39; early series pickups are surprisingly low on A-list wattage.</p>
<p>
That&#39;s partly because two of the most star-studded new shows received straight-to-series orders long ago: NBC ordered the Jennifer Lopez drama Shades of Blue in February 2014 and picked up Eva Longoria&#39;s comedy, Telenovela, in January). But it also signals a major television power shift: the real TV stars are now the producers behind the camera, not the actors in front of it.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Leading the powerhouse producers this time around is Greg Berlanti, who already has three shows on air (Arrow and The Flash on The CW, and NBC&#39;s The Mysteries of Laura). Three Berlanti-produced pilots have received series orders in the past week: Supergirl (CBS), drama Blindspot (NBC) and DC&#39;s Legends of Tomorrow, his Arrow/Flash spinoff for The CW. If NBC renews Laura&mdash;expect a decision later today&mdash;he&#39;ll have a whopping six series on air for 2015-2016.</p>
<p>
Neck and neck with Berlanti is producer Dick Wolf. NBC picked up his Chicago Fire/Chicago P.D. spinoff Chicago Med and You the Jury, a reality court show, which gives him five series on that network next year (alongside Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Law &amp; Order: SVU).</p>
<p>
Queen of TV&mdash;or at least, Thursday night TV&mdash;Shonda Rhimes also added to her three-show stable, as ABC has ordered drama The Catch, from her Shondaland production company. (She&#39;ll be an executive producer on that one.) And Julie Plec, who executive produces The Vampire Diaries and The Originals for The CW, will add a third series to her roster for that network: drama Cordon.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
While those producers have all been thriving on television, the networks have had a far rockier road with star vehicles. In the last two years, Michael J. Fox, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett and Katherine Heigl all headlined projects that ultimately failed to move the ratings needle.</p>
<p>
That&#39;s not to say that networks will stop casting big-name actors, nor should they.</p>
<p>
Recent hits The Blacklist and How to Get Away With Murder would be nothing without their respective stars, James Spader and Viola Davis. But as this Upfront season has shown, networks now believe that in their quest to find a new hit series, the safer bet for success is on producers, not actors.&nbsp;</p>
TechnologyTelevisionDick WolfGreg BerlantiJulie PlecRob LoweJason LynchUpfrontUpfrontFri, 08 May 2015 16:37:34 +0000164620 at http://www.adweek.comABC's Success With Diversity Comes From Focusing on Creators, Not Just Starshttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/abcs-success-diversity-comes-focusing-creators-not-just-stars-162384
Jason Lynch<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/fresh-off-boat-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
ABC has changed mainstream television&#39;s diversity makeup more than any of its broadcast counterparts in recent years, and executives say the commitment is paying off not just in ratings, but also in quality.</p>
<p>
Already seeing success with shows like Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Black-ish and Cristela, which star a variety of minority actors and have brought underrepresented perspectives to prime-time, the network will soon add <span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">midseason series </span><a href="http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/television/five-shows-premiering-winter-you-need-see-162116" target="_blank">Fresh off the Boat </a>(prime time&#39;s first Asian-American sitcom since Margaret Cho&#39;s All American Girl in 1994) and American Crime (created by 12 Years a Slave scriptwriter John Ridley).</p>
<p>
&quot;I think it&#39;s our job to reflect America,&quot; said ABC entertainment president Paul Lee at the Television Critics Association&#39;s winter press tour this week. &quot;I really believed from the beginning that the demographic changes in America were just as important to our revolution as the technological changes.&quot;</p>
<p>
(A skeptic could still point to ABC&#39;s dating competition shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, which remain predominantly lily white. &quot;You are going to see diversity as we go through that,&quot; vowed Lee, though this wasn&#39;t the first year he&#39;d made that promise.)&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Creating content that appeals to underserved audiences has helped propel ABC to wins among the vital 18-49 demographic on Wednesdays, Fridays and, most notably, Thursdays, thanks to<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/next-aaron-spelling-showrunner-shonda-rhimes-abcs-queen-prime-time-158042" target="_blank"> its TGIT block of Shonda Rhimes-produced shows.</a> It is also the only network with three shows that average more than a 3 rating among those 18-49 (Modern Family, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder).</p>
<p>
&quot;We didn&#39;t pick up these shows because they were diverse, we picked them up because they were great,&quot; Lee told reporters. &quot;Going to storytellers who come from different groups will unleash a creativity that is really going to resonate. &hellip; I&#39;m not going to pick up a show that will help me make a bullet point as I sit in front of you guys.&quot;</p>
<p>
Lee pointed to American Crime, from 12 Years a Slave writer John Ridley, which he called &quot;one of the most powerful pieces of television I&#39;ve been associated with in my whole career.&quot; Both American Crime (just 11 episodes) and Secrets and Lies (10 episodes) &quot;are in the True Detective mold,&quot; said Lee, meaning that they are anthology-style shows that would feature new stories and a largely new cast if they are renewed for a second season.</p>
<p>
And even though his job as a broadcast network president is to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, Lee said that can no longer mean programming shows that are aimed at the lowest common denominator. &quot;&#39;Least objectionable television&#39; is dead,&quot; said Lee. &quot;We&#39;re in a world where passion rules, where social conversation is so important, and where people can watch what they want to watch, where they want to watch it, so they&#39;re only going to watch the shows that they really love.&quot;</p>
<p>
One genre where ABC has found little audience passion is in music competitions, where its shows have drawn only a fraction of the audiences that have flocked to The Voice and American Idol (<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/coke-exits-american-idol-after-13-seasons-iconic-shows-future-looks-grim-161979" target="_blank">neither of which</a> is doing as well this season as in the past).</p>
<p>
&quot;We have in the glint of our eye, some really cool reality shows for the summer, but they&#39;re not singing competitions,&quot; said Lee, whose most recent stab at the genre, last summer&#39;s Rising Star, averaged a 1.06 rating, even lower than Duets fared two summers earlier (1.2). &quot;I don&#39;t think we&#39;ll try that for a little bit. I&#39;m sure we&#39;ll come back to that in the future.&quot;</p>
<p>
Unlike some of his broadcast counterparts, Lee has no problem with audiences binge-watching TV content, noting that viewers who binged Scandal on Netflix after its first season &quot;helped turn Scandal into the powerhouse that it is.&quot; A decade ago, he pointed out, audiences had a tougher time jumping into prime-time soaps mid-run because there was no way for them to catch up from the beginning; services like Netflix and Amazon Prime now make that possible.</p>
<p>
Another key to ABC&#39;s resurgence: the fact that so many of its hit shows are produced in-house by ABC Studios (one notable exception being Modern Family, from 20th Century Fox Television). &quot;That&#39;s a tremendously important growth engine for us and allows us to really control how we use those shows on multiple platforms and around the world,&quot; said Lee. &quot;So that&#39;s been critical.&quot;&nbsp;</p>
Television2014-15 Broadcast TV SeasonAbcBlack-ishHow to Get Away with MurderMidseasonJason LynchPaul LeeShonda RhimesTelevision Critics AssociationThu, 15 Jan 2015 22:53:42 +0000162384 at http://www.adweek.comKatherine Heigl's New Show Pulled the Viewers, but Will They Stick Around?http://www.adweek.com/news/television/here-comes-katherine-heigls-new-show-161516
Sam Thielman<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/state-of-affairs-katherine-heigl-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
State of Affairs, as <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/television/nbcs-new-fall-shows-best-worst-160203" target="_blank">we observed</a> in September, has some problems. But it also has a high budget, a bankable star and a time slot after NBC&#39;s flagship show, The Voice, as well as viewers who probably forgot The Blacklist is on hiatus until next year. So the question at the moment is pretty simple: Can State of Affairs win over enough viewers looking for the next big, flashy, action-packed drama?</p>
<p>
The answer at the moment is &quot;possibly.&quot; With the time slot ready to go, the show pulled a solid 2.2 rating last night, down significantly from The Blacklist&#39;s 2.69 average but above everything else on the network so far this season. The 10 p.m. spot on Monday isn&#39;t a terribly competitive one, and The Blacklist has owned it in a big way this season (legacy shows on CBS and ABC&mdash;NCIS: Los Angeles and Castle, respectively&mdash;are both sagging in the ratings but unlikely to get canceled this season. Neither The CW nor Fox programs the 10 p.m. hour).</p>
<p>
Reviews of the show haven&#39;t been kind, though a few have noted the show makes canny use of Heigl&#39;s difficult reputation. (It&#39;s also been a troubled production&mdash;showrunner Ed Bernero left because he didn&#39;t get along with creator Joe Carnahan, an action-movie director responsible for stuff like Smokin&#39; Aces and the big-screen remake of The A-Team.) The question is mostly how upset audiences will be over the midfall changeover. Is it a major bait-and-switch or a pleasant interlude? State of Affairs has a potential full season ahead of it (well, full-ish&mdash;it&#39;s starting mid-November so it can&#39;t be that full), and it could find a spot on the NBC schedule, oddly, alongside a number of other CIA-minded series, including CBS&#39; Madam Secretary and NBC&#39;s own Allegiance.</p>
<p>
Heigl herself has been on a charm offensive in the TV news magazines, telling Mario Lopez she watches former boss Shonda Rhimes&#39; Scandal every week and that she wants to mend fences over her departure from Grey&#39;s Anatomy. &quot;I&#39;m sorry she is left with such a crappy impression of me,&quot; <a href="http://extratv.com/2014/11/17/katherine-heigls-apology-in-feud-with-shonda-rhimes-im-sorry-that-she-feels-that-way" target="_blank">she said</a>. &quot;I wish I could do something to change that. Maybe I will be able to someday.&quot; Maybe!</p>
TelevisionGrey's AnatomyNbcNetworksShonda RhimesState of AffairsSam ThielmanTue, 18 Nov 2014 20:01:35 +0000161516 at http://www.adweek.comShonda Rhimes Smashes It in TV Twitter Ratingshttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/shonda-rhimes-smashes-it-tv-twitter-ratings-160494
Robert Mann<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/scandal-olivia-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
<iframe allowtransparency="true" class="nielsen-twitter-tv-ratings" frameborder="0" height="678" id="twitter-widget-2" scrolling="no" src="http://www.nielsensocial.com/rating/week-of-09-22-14/?view=widget&amp;wide=1" style="border: none; max-width: 100%;" title="Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
Shonda Rhimes is on a roll in Nielsen&rsquo;s TV Twitter ratings. The producer and screenwriter&rsquo;s steamy Scandal, set in Washington D.C., generated the most Twitter traffic last week. It inspired 718,000 discrete tweets reaching 4.16 million Twitter accounts, numbers that smashed the competition.</p>
<p>
The Season 4 premiere episode on ABC featured commentary about Olivia&rsquo;s Zanzabarian trysts, changes in hair style and some body language observations from Twitter fans of the series.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Omg when Olivia and Fitz walked right past each other I got chills all through my body!! Ahhhh <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/catchingup?src=hash">#catchingup</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/scandal?src=hash">#scandal</a></p>
&mdash; C&bull;dee&bull;C (@EyezLouisVBrown) <a href="https://twitter.com/EyezLouisVBrown/status/516725892778033152">Sept. 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p>
And there was some wry political commentary.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Turns out &quot;The Dog ate Obamas intelligence briefings&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Scandal?src=hash">#Scandal</a></p>
&mdash; toni smith (@palmaceiahome1) <a href="https://twitter.com/palmaceiahome1/status/516719169015144449">Sept. 29, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p>
Rhimes&rsquo; Thursday night winning streak also featured a TV ratings win with the debut of her latest show, How to Get Away With Murder, a legal drama that pulled in 14 million viewers among adults. The show stars Viola Davis as a take-no-prisoners defense attorney. NBC&rsquo;s The Voice came in a distant second in Nielsen&rsquo;s TV Twitter ratings.</p>
TelevisionKerry WashingtonScandalShonda RhimesThe VoiceTue, 30 Sep 2014 21:14:33 +0000160494 at http://www.adweek.comShonda Rhimes Addresses Being Mischaracterized as an 'Angry Black Woman'http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/shonda-rhimes-sounds-social-about-being-mischaracterized-angry-black-woman-160267
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/shonda-hed-2014.jpeg"> <p>
<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/next-aaron-spelling-showrunner-shonda-rhimes-abcs-queen-prime-time-158042" target="_blank">Shonda Rhimes</a>&nbsp;is calling out The New York Times for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/arts/television/viola-davis-plays-shonda-rhimess-latest-tough-heroine.html?_r=1" target="_blank">an article</a>&nbsp;that&nbsp;suggested the Grey&#39;s Anatomy creator is an &quot;angry black woman,&quot; and that she&#39;s taking advantage of the stereotype to fuel the success of her shows, including the upcoming ABC series <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/television/abcs-new-fall-shows-best-worst-160148" target="_blank">How to Get Away With Murder</a>.</p>
<p>
The article&mdash;which opens with the line &quot;When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman&quot;&mdash;claims that her upcoming law school drama will feature a strong African-American female lead and that the showrunner has followed a similar formula on her other hit shows, including Scandal.</p>
<p>
Rhimes rightfully took issue with the Times&#39; assertions and sounded off on Twitter.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Confused why <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes">@nytimes</a> critic doesn&#39;t know identity of CREATOR of show she&#39;s reviewing. <a href="https://twitter.com/petenowa">@petenowa</a> did u know u were &quot;an angry black woman&quot;?</p>
&mdash; shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/shondarhimes/status/512968959394856960">September 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Apparently we can be &quot;angry black women&quot; together, because I didn&#39;t know I was one either! <a href="https://twitter.com/petenowa">@petenowa</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LearnSomethingNewEveryday?src=hash">#LearnSomethingNewEveryday</a></p>
&mdash; shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/shondarhimes/status/512969401533227008">September 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Final thing: (then I am gonna do some yoga): how come I am not &quot;an angry black woman&quot; the many times Meredith (or Addison!) rants? <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes">@nytimes</a></p>
&mdash; shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/shondarhimes/status/512970400083750912">September 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Wait. I&#39;m &quot;angry&quot; AND a ROMANCE WRITER?!! I&#39;m going to need to put down the internet and go dance this one out. Because ish is getting real.</p>
&mdash; shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/shondarhimes/status/512972768930177024">September 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p>
While it is true that sometimes Dr. Miranda Bailey (played by Chandra Wilson) from Grey&#39;s and Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) on Scandal get frustrated, the same can be said about anyone on her shows&mdash;regardless of race or gender. In addition to anger, they also experience other emotions like elation, fear and, as Grey&#39;s calls it, being &quot;dark and twisty.&quot; Grouping the characters as enraged people couldn&#39;t be further from the truth.&nbsp;Everyone is extremely emotionally volatile: It&#39;s what makes compelling primetime drama.</p>
<p>
That&#39;s not to mention that while Bailey is one of the featured characters on Grey&#39;s, the main character on the show is its namesake, Dr. Meredith Grey. And she&#39;s a white woman. Private Practice was about Dr. Addison Montgomery, who was also a white woman. The four main stars of her other short-lived medical drama Off the Map were Caucasian, Hispanic and African-American. To suggest she only highlights black women on her shows is simply not true.</p>
<p>
Plus, there&#39;s this glaring inaccuracy: the Times&#39; TV critic suggested that Rhimes created How to Get Away with Murder. She didn&#39;t. <a href="https://twitter.com/petenowa" target="_blank">Pete Nowalk</a> came up with the show&#39;s concept, and he happens to be a white man. Rhimes is a producer on the series.</p>
TechnologyTelevisionThe PressGrey's AnatomyHow to Get Away with MurderNetworksMichelle CastilloOnlinePete NorwalkPrivate PracticeShonda RhimesSocialFri, 19 Sep 2014 21:11:55 +0000160267 at http://www.adweek.comThe Next Aaron Spelling? Showrunner Shonda Rhimes Is ABC's Queen of Prime Timehttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/next-aaron-spelling-showrunner-shonda-rhimes-abcs-queen-prime-time-158042
T.L. Stanley<p>
The pilot of then-unknown hospital drama Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy was nearly complete in early 2005, but some real heavy lifting remained. Shonda Rhimes, a screenwriter who was taking her first stab at creating a television series, needed to put together synopses of the next eight episodes, telling executives at ABC just where the soapy, hospital-based drama intended to go in the near future. James Parriott, a veteran showrunner who&rsquo;d been brought in to help steer the ship, offered to take half the workload. They only had a weekend to finish, he remembers, which would&rsquo;ve been a tall order even for a seasoned TV writer.&nbsp;</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="float: right;margin: 10px 0px 10px 15px;">
<img class="fancyzoom" data-fancybox-src="/files/imagecache/node-detail/shonda-02-2014.jpg" src="/files/imagecache/test-width/shonda-02-2014.jpg" />
<p class="caption">
<span class="meta-credit">&nbsp;Photo: Joe Pugliese/August Images</span></p>
</div>
<p>
Rhimes politely said thanks but no thanks to her colleague, whose credits include hit cable and broadcast programs like Covert Affairs, Sons of Anarchy, Ugly Betty and Dark Skies. Parriott didn&rsquo;t force the issue with Rhimes, but he says he awaited a frantic Sunday afternoon call asking for a bailout. It would&rsquo;ve been completely understandable coming from a TV novice under that kind of pressure. While the 11th hour plea never came, Monday morning did, along with rapid recaps of Episodes 2 through 9 for a series that would become a massive prime-time success.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;In that small amount of time, she had written these brilliant, witty, wonderful one-page summations&mdash;and not just fast, but good, really superb,&rdquo; Parriott recalls. &ldquo;I knew right then that she had it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
His heavy oversight&mdash;network-mandated for an unproven showrunner&mdash;became mostly a light touch after that, even though Rhimes had only a single TV credit at that point, as co-writer of HBO&rsquo;s Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s always difficult to know,&rdquo; Parriott muses. &ldquo;Some feature writers never adjust to TV because the format and pacing are so different, but she learned it so quickly. By Season 2, she was running the show without me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
And hence, a legendary TV producer was born. From Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy, Rhimes launched hit spinoff Private Practice, which ran for six seasons, overlapping with her current watercooler smash, the Washington, D.C.-set Scandal, which just ended its third season with its best ratings ever in total viewers and the coveted 18-49-year-old demographic.</p>
<p>
Come fall, she&rsquo;ll launch another hour-long drama, How to Get Away With Murder, which ABC describes as a &ldquo;sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller&rdquo; starring Viola Davis, making up a three-hour Thursday block with Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy and Scandal. It&rsquo;s little wonder that ABC Entertainment president Paul Lee dubbed Rhimes &ldquo;the Charles Dickens of the 21st century&rdquo; during the net&rsquo;s recent upfront presentation, a nod to her prolific output and stature in the industry. He added the caveat: &ldquo;&hellip; if Charles Dickens was black and a woman.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Lee tells Adweek: &ldquo;Shonda is one of the great storytellers of our time. No one delivers the emotional power and roller-coaster ride of Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy and Scandal like Shonda. She&rsquo;s at the very top of her game, and we have no doubt that she&rsquo;s setting a standard on ABC that others will be trying to emulate for years to come. We&rsquo;re thrilled to be in business with her.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
It&rsquo;s a huge bet for the third-place broadcast network, stacking up Rhimes&rsquo; shows on the most valuable night of the week for big-spending marketers like the movie studios, retailers and automakers. Meanwhile, ABC Studios just renewed a deal reportedly valued at eight figures with Rhimes&rsquo; production company, Shondaland. The extension will keep Rhimes, a Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee, in the ABC/Disney fold through mid-2018.</p>
<p>
That should give Rhimes some talking points next week when she&rsquo;s due to give the commencement address at her alma mater, Dartmouth College, where she majored in English literature and creative writing. (Who knows? There may be a few budding Hollywood players&mdash;aspiring to Rhimes&rsquo; lofty position in Tinseltown&mdash;in the graduating class.)</p>
<p>
None of Rhimes&rsquo; successes surprise Parriott, who says she has &ldquo;become more confident&rdquo; and developed &ldquo;a certain executive quality&rdquo; while remaining the friendly, down-to-earth person she was when she was new to the medium, fresh off writing teen-targeted movies like Princess Diaries 2 and Crossroads.</p>
<p>
In addition to her being decisive, another of Rhimes&rsquo; strengths, Parriott says, is that she surrounds herself with talented people, like great writers and her producing partner and right-hand exec Betsy Beers. Having those in place help her balance her heavy work responsibilities with time with her young daughters.&nbsp;</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="float: right;margin: 10px 0px 10px 15px;">
<img src="/files/imagecache/node-detail/shonda-01-2014.jpg" />
<p class="caption">
8 p.m. Grey&#39;s Anatomy just lost longtime star Sandra Oh<br />
this past season; 9 p.m. Kerry Washington helped build<br />
Scandal&#39;s audience on the back of social media; 10 p.m.<br />
How to Get Away With Murder, starring Viola Davis,&nbsp;rounds<br />
out the night. |&nbsp;<span class="meta-credit"> Illustration: Gluekit; Photos. Davis&nbsp;and<br />
Washington: Craig Sjodin/ABC; Oh: Ron Tom/ABC </span></p>
</div>
<p>
<strong>today&rsquo;s aaron spelling</strong></p>
<p>
While her envelope-pushing storylines are completely modern, Rhimes&rsquo; influence conjures memories of network-defining TV producers of days past, says Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. &ldquo;Shonda Rhimes is becoming the Aaron Spelling of the new century,&rdquo; he says, recalling that writer-producers like Spelling (The Love Boat), Stephen J. Cannell (The Rockford Files), Garry Marshall (Happy Days) and Norman Lear (All in the Family) wielded significant power, owned entire nights of the week in prime time and helped build network brands in the &rsquo;70s and &rsquo;80s. &ldquo;That Rhimes is managing to be a network broadcast auteur in 2014 is kind of remarkable,&rdquo; says Thompson.</p>
<p>
For a more contemporary comparison, she&rsquo;s in league with Dick Wolf (Law &amp; Order) and Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men). She&rsquo;s not without missteps&mdash;her travelogue/medical show Off the Map lasted only four months, and a few pilots didn&rsquo;t get picked up. That said, her programs, though not considered prestige dramas like AMC&rsquo;s Mad Men and Breaking Bad, draw affluent female viewers, the heart of ABC&rsquo;s audience.</p>
<p>
By all accounts, Rhimes (who declined to speak for this story) has near free rein on the creative direction of her shows but still has to battle for some of her signature sizzle&mdash;those torrid moments between interracial lovers Olivia (Kerry Washington) and Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) in Scandal, for example. She reportedly doesn&rsquo;t fret over nitpicking notes from her bosses&mdash;in fact, the network brass doesn&rsquo;t bother to even give them anymore.</p>
<p>
It&rsquo;s easy to understand the network putting so much stock in Rhimes. After all, she could well solve the network&rsquo;s 8 p.m. problem on Thursdays, also known as &ldquo;the dead spot&rdquo; as nothing lives there for very long (e.g., Zero Hour, and a reboot of Charlie&rsquo;s Angels). For years, no new show has caught on in the time period Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy will now occupy. The drama about bed-hopping, quick-quipping doctors is going strong headed into its 11th season (it&rsquo;s regularly among the top 20 Nielsen programs) and likely will help ABC draw bigger ratings across the entire night, says Darcy Bowe, vp, media director at Starcom USA. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re putting a show with a proven fan base at a time that they&rsquo;ve really struggled,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It makes a ton of sense.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
And fans who like Rhimes&rsquo; shows in all their eyebrow-raising glory needn&rsquo;t worry about any switch in time slot. Rhimes responded recently to concerns over a tamer Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy slated for the so-called &ldquo;family hour,&rdquo; tweeting: &ldquo;To those who ask, I have no intention of changing content of shows for time slot moves. Next question.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Advertisers appreciate Rhimes&rsquo; shows precisely because they are buzzworthy and often watched live so fans can be part of the social chatter around them. &ldquo;People are really engaged with this programming, and that&rsquo;s where advertisers want to be,&rdquo; notes Bowe, who cops to being a dedicated fan of both Grey&rsquo;s and Scandal. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re the kind of shows where people don&rsquo;t want to go to work the next day and not know what happened.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
And what does happen can be outrageous, from having Scandal&rsquo;s president of the United States (played by Goldwyn) murder a Supreme Court justice to staging yet another car crash involving mass casualties or natural disaster on Grey&rsquo;s. The fact that Rhimes&rsquo; shows act as a melting pot&mdash;featuring loads of ethnic diversity, along with a mix of gay and straight central characters&mdash;also appeals to marketers looking for a better reflection of the real America on TV, as Bowe points out.</p>
<p>
Known to audition a diverse roster of actors for roles in her series, Rhimes had envisioned a petite blonde like Kristin Chenoweth as the hard-nosed Dr. Miranda Bailey in Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy, for example. The part would end up going to Chandra Wilson, an African-American actress who snagged four Emmy nominations for her work on the series.</p>
<p>
<strong>socially savvy</strong></p>
<p>
In addition to crafting addictively over-the-top storylines with her writers, Rhimes has been particularly successful at stoking the flames of social media, creating a blueprint for the rest of the industry. The networks don&rsquo;t have pockets deep enough or airtime abundant enough to heavily promote every show. That&rsquo;s where savvy producers with their own social media-based campaigns come in, whipping up fans who crave behind-the-scenes extras and inside information.</p>
<p>
Rhimes has excelled at that game from early on, notes Marc Karzen, CEO of social media analytics firm RelishMIX, by launching her own&mdash;and hyperactive&mdash;Twitter feed, hosting live viewing parties and pulling in cast members for chats with fans. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s writing the playbook for the future,&rdquo; Karzen explains. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s really taken the bull by the horns&mdash;she engages with the fans and drives the conversation.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
For Scandal, a midseason replacement that launched in 2012 to less-than-stellar reviews initially, Rhimes identified and cultivated an audience via Twitter, Karzen points out. The buzz that flowed from that steady stream of digital chatter (the show generated more than 200,000 tweets per episode) helped grow the program&rsquo;s viewer base.</p>
<p>
The numbers for Scandal, a cliffhanger-happy melodrama that took off during Season 2 to become a must-see hit, are impressive. The show&rsquo;s Facebook followers swelled 174 percent over the last year to 2.3 million, while Rhimes&rsquo; own Twitter audience grew 67 percent to 631,000. Washington&rsquo;s Twitter account jumped 83 percent to 1.6 million followers, and the actress&rsquo; Facebook count grew by 1,790 percent to 2.9 million, per RelishMIX data.</p>
<p>
Based extremely loosely on the professional life of Beltway crisis manager Judy Smith, Scandal just ended the season with its highest ratings yet. The season finale in April pulled in 10.6 million viewers, up 39 percent in total audience and 43 percent in adults 18-49 versus the previous season. It will have a tough head-to-head rival next season in NBC&rsquo;s hit The Blacklist, which moves to Thursdays as NBC tries to shore up the key night as well.</p>
<p>
Hopes are high for Rhimes&rsquo; new 10 p.m. show, How to Get Away With Murder, which snagged one of the highest-profile stars of pilot season in two-time Oscar nominee Davis. Written by Peter Nowalk, the drama centers on ambitious law students and their possibly shady criminal defense professor who get tangled up in a murder plot. In typical Rhimes fashion&mdash;she&rsquo;s executive producing with Nowalk and Beers&mdash;there are strong female characters, a multiethnic cast and plenty of Internet chatter.</p>
<p>
Considering its A-list star and creative imprimatur, Bowe has no doubt why it&rsquo;s such a hotly anticipated fall entry. When she and other media buyers watched the pilots for Grey&rsquo;s and Scandal the first time, they were hooked immediately.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe I would have to wait months to see those shows,&rdquo; remembers Bowe. &ldquo;Her shows are very character-based and character-driven, and it&rsquo;s all intricately woven together in a way that just sucks you in. It&rsquo;s unpredictable, it&rsquo;s escapism, and it keeps you engaged week after week.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
And that&rsquo;s just how Rhimes would want it.</p>
TelevisionAbcArron SpellingGrey's AnatomyHow to Get Away with MurderKery WashingtonT.L. StanleyScandalShonda RhimesTue, 03 Jun 2014 09:55:55 +0000158042 at http://www.adweek.comUpfront Upheaval: ABC Creates an All-Shonda Rhimes Thursday Blockhttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/upfront-upheaval-abc-creates-all-shonda-rhimes-thursday-block-157642
Anthony Crupi<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/how-to-get-away.jpeg"> <p>
It&rsquo;s Shonda Rhimes&rsquo; world; everyone else just lives in it.</p>
<p>
The creator of the ABC franchise drama Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy and the scorching Beltway caper Scandal is getting her very own night, as the network is slotting her new series, How to Get Away With Murder, in the Thursday 10 p.m. slot. Scandal will take a step back to 9 p.m., thereby pushing Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy to 8 p.m.</p>
<p>
Rhimes on Tuesday signed a four-year contract extension that will keep her at ABC Studios through May 2018.</p>
<p>
(Interestingly enough, ABC has a history of going all-in on a single producer, having stacked three Aaron Spelling shows together on Saturday nights back in the early 1980s. The answer to that particular trivia question: T.J. Hooker, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.) </p>
<p>
Written by executive producer Peter Nowalk, <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/how-to-get-away-with-murder" target="_blank">How to Get Away With Murder</a> stars Viola Davis as a law professor who gets into all sorts of entanglements with four of her students. The show would appear to have a clear path to victory, what with Rhimes&rsquo; bona fides and a fairly weak competitive set&mdash;Murder goes up against NBC&rsquo;s low-rated Parenthood and (presumably), CBS&rsquo; Elementary.</p>
<p>
That the steamy Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy will now be slotted in what was once characterized as the &ldquo;family hour&rdquo; should not prove to be too great of a challenge, said ABC entertainment president Paul Lee. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s much less relevant than it was five years ago,&rdquo; Lee said, adding that ABC&rsquo;s sales team is supportive of the move. The network&rsquo;s Standards and Practices department also will ensure that all Grey&rsquo;s content is appropriate for the earlier hour.</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, having propped up no fewer than eight comedies over the last four seasons, Modern Family is getting yet another lead-out in <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/blackish" target="_blank">Black-ish</a>, a family comedy starring Anthony Anderson and Laurence Fishburne. (Comedy Central recently named Black-ish showrunner Larry Wilmore as the successor to Stephen Colbert.) Along with Murder and the new comedies Fresh Off the Boat and Cristela, Black-ish represents ABC&rsquo;s commitment to develop programming that reflects the diverse viewing population.</p>
<p>
Black-ish beat out Kevin Hart&rsquo;s multicamera pilot,&nbsp;Keep It Together. While ABC passed on the popular comedian&rsquo;s project, Lee this afternoon insisted that he would love to try to get another Hart show on the air in the future.&nbsp;&ldquo;We would love to be in business with Kevin. He&rsquo;s a fantastic star,&rdquo; Lee said.</p>
<p>
Thankfully, while Fox and NBC continue to engage in a war of attrition on Tuesday nights from 9-10 p.m., ABC is no longer participating in the <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/television/fall-tv-preview-143785#tuesday-3" target="_blank">cannibalistic</a> practice of <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/lifes-bitch-and-then-you-get-canceled-abc-evicts-apt-23-146720" target="_blank">comedy&nbsp;road-blocking</a>. Instead, it will sandwich its returning drama Marvel&rsquo;s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. between an 8-9 p.m. battery of new comedies (<a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/selfie" target="_blank">Selfie</a> and <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/manhattan-love-story" target="_blank">Manhattan Love Story</a>) and the 10 p.m. supernatural/medical drama, Forever. &nbsp;</p>
<p>
ABC hopes that <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/forever" target="_blank">Forever</a> will exorcize the demons spawned by the <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/abc-yanks-cord-mind-games-156630" target="_blank">newly troublesome time slot</a>. This season, no fewer than three new dramas (Lucky 7, Killer Women, Mind Games) failed in the Tuesday 10 p.m. roost, making the hour as vulnerable as its Thursday 8 p.m. and <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/sunday-night-ghost-town-soft-launch-abc-s-red-widow-147690" target="_blank">Sunday 10 p.m.</a> draws.</p>
<p>
While ABC will hold back a number of new shows for midseason, the network isn&rsquo;t indulging in the sort of delayed gratification evidenced by NBC and Fox. Among the newcomers that will bow in 2015 are the gritty <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/american-crime" target="_blank">American Crime</a>;&nbsp;the instant spinoff/S.H.I.E.L.D. origin story, <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/marvels-agent-carter" target="_blank">Marvel&rsquo;s Agent Carter</a>; the mystery import, Secrets and Lies; and the aliens-among-us chiller, <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/the-whispers" target="_blank">The Whispers</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Carter will serve as a bridge between the fall and winter runs of Marvel&rsquo;s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Other series that will be split down the middle include Scandal, Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy and Once Upon a Time.</p>
<p>
Perhaps the biggest swing ABC will take next season is <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/galavant" target="_blank">Galavant</a>. A &ldquo;musical comedy fairy tale&rdquo; (think Once Upon a Time meets Glee), Galavant is written and produced by Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love) and features the musical stylings of Alan Menken and Glenn Slater (The Little Mermaid).</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Our schedule reflects a judicious mix of boldness and stability,&rdquo; said Lee, by way of introducing the fall schedule. &ldquo;ABC is finishing the season with momentum&mdash;we now have building blocks on every night of the week, and we&rsquo;re using them to launch our new series. This season we set out to develop passion projects from world-class storytellers and showcase the faces and voices of America. Both plans unleashed a wave of creativity, and we&#39;re extremely excited about the new slate.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
ABC will unveil its 2014-15 prime-time schedule in New York today.</p>
<p>
<br />
<strong>ABC FALL 2014 SCHEDULE</strong> (New programs are in ALL CAPS) <br />
<br />
MONDAY <br />
8-10 p.m.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Dancing with the Stars &nbsp; <br />
10-11 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Castle&nbsp;<br />
<br />
TUESDAY <br />
8-8:30 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;SELFIE <br />
8:30-9 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;MANHATTAN LOVE STORY<br />
9-10 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Marvel&rsquo;s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.<br />
10-11 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; FOREVER</p>
<p>
WEDNESDAY <br />
8-8:30 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Middle<br />
8:30-9 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Goldbergs<br />
9-9:30 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Modern Family<br />
9:30-10 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;BLACK-ISH<br />
10-11 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Nashville<br />
<br />
THURSDAY <br />
8-9 p.m.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy<br />
9-10 p.m.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Scandal<br />
10-11 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER<br />
<br />
FRIDAY <br />
8-8:30 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Last Man Standing<br />
8:30-9 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; CRISTELA<br />
9 p.m.-10 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Shark Tank<br />
10-11 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 20/20<br />
<br />
SATURDAY <br />
8-11 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Saturday Night Football<br />
<br />
SUNDAY <br />
7-8 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;America&rsquo;s Funniest Home Videos <br />
8-9 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Once Upon a Time<br />
9-10 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Resurrection<br />
10-11 p.m. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Revenge<br />
<br />
Midseason series include AMERICAN CRIME,&nbsp;MARVEL&rsquo;S AGENT CARTER, SECRETS AND LIES, THE WHISPERS, FRESH OFF THE BOAT and GALAVANT.</p>
Television2014-15 Broadcast TV Season2014-15 UpfrontAbcAmerica’s Funniest Home VideosBlack-ishAnthony CrupiCristelaFantasy islandForeverFoxFresh Off the BoatGalavantGrey’s AnatomyHow to Get Away with MurderManhattan Love StoryMarvel’s Agent CarterMarvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.Modern FamilyNetworksOnce Upon a TimePaul LeeRatingsResurrectionRevengeScandalSecrets and LiesselfieShonda RhimesT.J. HookerThe Love BoatThe WhispersUpfrontUpfrontsViola DavisTue, 13 May 2014 18:21:13 +0000157642 at http://www.adweek.comFizzy, Busy Finale for ABC’s Scandalhttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/fizzy-busy-finale-abc-s-scandal-157117
Anthony Crupi<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/unknown_119.jpeg"> <p>
With no fewer than four broadcast series calling it a day, Thursday night was a time for cliff-hangers and farewells. But as has been the case throughout the season, only one of these shows delivered a blockbuster audience.</p>
<p>
The season finale of ABC&rsquo;s sudsy Beltway drama <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/scandal" target="_blank">Scandal</a> went off with an all-too literal bang, as a terrorist bombing changed the stakes, and the ontological status of more than one key character was thrown into question. According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the Season 3 closer averaged 10.6 million viewers and a 3.5 in the adults 18-49 demo, making it the second-highest-rated episode in Scandal&rsquo;s history.</p>
<p>
Season to date, Scandal is one of just a handful of network series that managed to improve its ratings versus the year-ago period. In its third cycle, Scandal grew 29 percent in the dollar demo to a 3.1 average.</p>
<p>
The other three curtain closers didn&rsquo;t perform nearly as well as Shonda Rhimes&rsquo; well-oiled absurdity machine. The two back-to-back episodes of CBS&rsquo; The Crazy Ones drew a 1.6 and a 1.3 among the 18-49 set, making the latter the lowest-rated installment of the season. And while the Robin Williams Madison Avenue spoof averaged 8.32 million viewers and a 2.1 over the course of its freshman run, nearly doubling what NBC&rsquo;s Thursday night comedies generally rate, CBS has already renewed one middling new sitcom in Chuck Lorre&rsquo;s Mom (7.57 million/2.1).</p>
<p>
Of course, the fact that the network doesn&rsquo;t exactly have what one might call an abundance of free time slots available&mdash;CBS recently made its customary spring&nbsp;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/d-j-vu-all-over-again-cbs-renews-18-series-156284" target="_blank">18-series renewal announcement</a>&mdash;would appear to be another strike against the David E. Kelley strip.</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.nbc.com/community" target="_blank">Community</a> and Parenthood marked their respective fifth season send-offs with characteristically little fanfare. The Greendale gang drew 2.87 million viewers and a 1.0 in the demo, while Parenthood delivered 3.99 million viewers and a 1.3 rating.</p>
<p>
That Community received such a tepid send-off while competing with a repeat of CBS&rsquo; <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/big-bang-theory-gets-highest-ad-rates-outside-nfl-153087" target="_blank">The Big Bang Theory</a> is not the best news for fans of the cult hit. But because the show&rsquo;s vital signs always have been muddled, to speculate about the likelihood of one last renewal would be sheer folly.</p>
<p>
With his typical show of aplomb, Community showrunner <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/showrunner-dan-harmon-discusses-his-new-animated-series-154112" target="_blank">Dan Harmon</a> stuffed the &ldquo;Basic Sandwich&rdquo; finale with all sorts of arch metatextual commentary. (Or as Abed says in the midst of a meandering monologue about, well, a whole bunch of stuff, &ldquo;This show, Annie ... it isn&rsquo;t just their show. This is our show, and it&rsquo;s not over.&rdquo;)</p>
<p>
As Harmon observed during last month&rsquo;s PaleyFest, the fate of Community has never been easy to divine. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re on our fifth year of near cancellation. The only thing weirder than getting a sixth season would be not getting a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXqLCM0d0Os" target="_blank">sixth season</a>,&rdquo; Harmon said. &ldquo;There is nothing left for the show to do that would be really weird, other than getting cancelled. That&rsquo;s it. That&rsquo;s all we have left.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
The Community finale ended with a deft swipe at the network&rsquo;s dithering, as a clutch of faux NBC shows suggested that the folks at 30 Rock may have run out of viable ideas. (<a href="http://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/fake-nbc-shows-3.gif?w=650&amp;h=332" target="_blank">Mr. Egypt</a>, an all-new vehicle for a half-heartedly mummified B.J. Novak, looks a little more promising than Questlove&rsquo;s <a href="http://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/fake-nbc-shows-4.gif?w=650&amp;h=332" target="_blank">Celebrity Beat-Off</a>.) The phony shows were followed by a series of title cards (&ldquo;THIS SUMMER &hellip; OR FALL &hellip; OR, POSSIBLY NEXT WINTER &hellip; <a href="http://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/fake-nbc-shows-9.gif?w=650" target="_blank">DEPENDS ON WHAT FAILS</a>.&rdquo;)</p>
<p>
The status of Parenthood is similarly up in the air, although the fact that the show is produced in-house and has the numbers for a syndication run would seem to favor a final season of at least 13 episodes.&nbsp;</p>
Television2013-14 Broadcast TV SeasonAbcB. J. NovakCbsCelebrity Beat-OffAnthony CrupiDan HarmonDavid E. KelleyGreendaleMr. EgyptNbcNetworksPaleyFestParenthoodPrime Time RatingsQuestloveRatingsRobin WilliamsScandalShonda RhimesSix Seasons and a MovieThe Big Bang TheoryThe Crazy OnesFri, 18 Apr 2014 18:48:24 +0000157117 at http://www.adweek.comAll Hail Shonda Rhimeshttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/all-hail-shonda-rhimes-156029
Anthony Crupi<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/scandal-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
It may be time to rename ABC &ldquo;The House That Shonda Built.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
After a two-and-a-half-month hiatus, showrunner Shonda Rhimes&rsquo; twin Thursday night hits Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy and <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/scandal-s-tony-goldwyn-real-life-political-junkie-153243" target="_blank">Scandal</a> came storming back as if they&rsquo;d never left. In fact, both series posted their highest ratings since October.</p>
<p>
According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/greys-anatomy" target="_blank">Grey&rsquo;s</a> last night averaged 9.42 million viewers and a 3.1 in the adults 18-49 demo, marking a 15 percent increase when compared to its most recent original airdate (Dec. 12). Moreover, Grey&rsquo;s gathered steam as the night went on, improving from a 3.0 in the demo between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. to a 3.2 rating in its second half-hour.</p>
<p>
The hits just kept coming at 10 p.m., as the return of <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/scandal" target="_blank">Olivia Pope</a> and the rest of the Beltway crisis management crew delivered 9.32 million viewers and a 3.4 in the dollar demo. Scandal&rsquo;s preliminary deliveries topped its most recent new broadcast by two-tenths of a ratings point and now stands as the second&nbsp;highest rated show in Scandal history. (The Oct. 3 season opener drew a 3.6 in the demo.)</p>
<p>
That kind of consistency goes a long way toward explaining why Rhimes is the straw that stirs the drink at ABC. While Grey&rsquo;s no longer delivers the gaudy 25 million+ viewers it did in its Season 3, it has held up remarkably well for a broadcast show that is now in its 10th cycle. And Scandal is nothing less than a phenomenon. Not only is it the second highest-rated scripted series on network TV, it&rsquo;s also the No. 1 drama series among African-American viewers.</p>
<p>
Rhimes&rsquo; latest pilot, the legal thriller How to Get Away With Murder, is under consideration for a fall premiere on ABC. &nbsp;</p>
<p>
ABC&rsquo;s 9-11 p.m. lineup absolutely scorched the competition, which included NBC&rsquo;s Hollywood Game Night (1.2) and Parenthood (1.1); CBS&rsquo; Two and a Half Men (2.5), The Crazy Ones (1.9) and Elementary (1.6) and Fox&rsquo;s Rake (0.8).</p>
<p>
Fox&rsquo;s deliveries are of particular concern, as American Idol tied last week&rsquo;s 2.4 rating, a series low. (In head-to-head competition with NBC&rsquo;s Winter Olympics coverage, Idol&rsquo;s Thursday night shows averaged a 3.1, 3.0 and 2.4 rating.) And in slipping under a 1.0 in its sixth episode, the Greg Kinnear drama <a href="http://www.fox.com/rake/" target="_blank">Rake</a> is, unequivocally, a goner.</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, if <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/voice-soars-unilever-sponsorship-155920" target="_blank">The Voice</a>, The Blacklist and Chicago P.D. all came back strong from their Olympic break, NBC&rsquo;s Thursday night lineup remains a Superfund Site. Notching a 1.0 in the demo, Community tied a series low, while Parks and Recreation fell 15 percent to a 1.1.</p>
<p>
While Hollywood Game Night dropped 20 percent to a 1.2 rating, the one-hour spackle show still outperformed its time slot predecessors by 50 percent. The final four weeks of the now defunct 9-10 p.m. battery comprised of <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nbc-cancels-sean-saves-world-155301" target="_blank">Sean Saves the World</a> and <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nbc-shuts-down-michael-j-fox-show-155520" target="_blank">The Michael J. Fox Show</a> averaged a 0.8 in the demo.</p>
<p>
CBS bounced back from its all-repeat Olympics schedule in fine form, as The Big Bang Theory delivered a 5.0, down just two-tenths from its Feb. 6 average, while <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/cbs-gives-full-season-orders-3-freshman-comedies-153266" target="_blank">The Millers</a> was up a tenth and the flip-flopped pairing of Two and a Half Men and The Crazy Ones improved 32 percent and 12 percent, respectively.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
On the CW, The Vampire Diaries matched its low-water mark with a 0.9 in the 18-49 demo, while the <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/cw-gives-early-renewals-5-series-155716" target="_blank">recently renewed</a> freshman drama Reign bottomed out with a 0.5, down a tenth from its Feb. 6 installment.</p>
<p>
Averaging a 2.7 in the 18-49 demo Thursday night, CBS edged ABC by a two-tenths of a point. Both nets left Fox (1.6) and NBC (1.1) in the dust. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision tied NBC for fourth place on the night.</p>
Television2013-14 Broadcast TV SeasonAbcAmerican IdolCbsElementaryAnthony CrupiGreg KinnearGrey’s AnatomyHollywood Game NightNbcNetworksParenthoodPrime Time RatingsRakeRatingsReignScandalSean Saves the WorldShonda RhimesThe Big Bang TheoryThe Crazy OnesThe CWThe Michael J. Fox ShowThe MillersThe Vampire DiariesTwo and a Half MenUnivisionFri, 28 Feb 2014 19:42:31 +0000156029 at http://www.adweek.comSo-So Start for ABC’s ‘Scandal’http://www.adweek.com/news/television/so-so-start-abc-s-scandal-139455
Anthony Crupi<p>
ABC&rsquo;s heavily promoted new political drama, <a href="http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/scandal" target="_blank"><em>Scandal</em></a>, bowed Thursday night to unspectacular numbers, delivering 7.33 million viewers and a 2.0 in the 18-49 demo.</p>
<p>
The Shonda Rhimes project stands as ABC&rsquo;s lowest-rated drama launch of the 2011-12 season, trailing recent series premieres <em>Missing</em> (10.6 million viewers/2.1 rating), <em>GCB</em> (7.56 million viewers/2.2 rating) and <em>The River</em> (7.59 million viewers/2.4 rating).</p>
<p>
While <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/broadcasts-graveyard-shift-139328" target="_blank">10 p.m. has become a veritable dead zone</a>, it&rsquo;s worth noting that demo deliveries were down 5 percent across the board Thursday night, which marked the eve of two tremendously solemn religious holidays (Good Friday and Passover).</p>
<p>
<em>Scandal</em> retained 89 percent of its <em>Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy</em> lead-in and easily crushed NBC&rsquo;s <em>Awake</em>, which fell to a series low 2.56 million viewers and a 0.9 in the demo. A new installment of <em>The Mentalist</em> drew 12.6 million viewers and a 2.4 rating, securing the time slot for CBS.</p>
<p>
Earlier in the night, <em>Missing</em> took another tumble, scaring up a mere 7.24 million viewers and a 1.5 rating in the dollar demo. <em>Missing</em> has the misfortune of competing against the CBS comedy juggernaut <em>The Big Bang</em> <em>Theory</em> (13.3 million/4.4) and Fox&rsquo;s <em>American Idol</em> (14.3 million/3.9).</p>
<p>
<em>Missing</em> did manage to beat out the two NBC comedies it faced in the first hour of prime time. <em>Community</em> sagged to 3 million viewers and a 1.3 rating at the top of the hour, while lead-out <em>30 Rock</em> posted an anemic 2.79 million viewers and a 1.2 in the demo.</p>
<p>
Season to date, ABC&rsquo;s biggest debut came courtesy of the Sunday night curiosity <em>Once Upon a Time</em>. The fractured fairy tale premiered Oct. 23 to 12.9 million viewers and a 4.0 rating.</p>
<p>
While ABC has yet to announce its renewals for 2012-13, <em>Once Upon a Time</em> is certain to return for a second tour. Other safe bets are veteran series <em>Modern Family</em>, <em>The Middle</em> and <em>Grey&rsquo;s Anatomy</em>, as well as newcomers <em>Revenge</em> and <em>Suburgatory</em>.</p>
<p>
To date, ABC has canceled four new series: <em>Charlie&rsquo;s Angels</em>, <em>Man Up!</em>, <em>Pan Am</em> and <em>Work It</em>. The latter strip was yanked after just two episodes. <em>The River</em> is also not expected to win a reprieve, drawing 3.99 million total viewers and a 1.4 rating in its March 20 finale.</p>
<p>
Through the first 28 weeks of the broadcast season, Fox leads the pack with a 3.2 in the demo, edging CBS (3.1). Fox&rsquo;s ratings are down 8 percent from a year ago, while CBS is up 3 percent.</p>
<p>
NBC&rsquo;s Super Bowl deliveries are the leading factor in its hold on third place; with an average 2.6 in the demo, the Peacock is up 8 percent versus 2010-11. Flat with a 2.4 rating, ABC remains mired in fourth place.</p>
TelevisionAbcCharlie’s AngelsGrey’s AnatomyMan Up!Modern FamilyAnthony CrupiOnce Upon a TimePan AmRatingsRevengeScandalShonda RhimesSuburgatoryThe MiddleThe RiverWork ItFri, 06 Apr 2012 19:35:47 +0000139455 at http://www.adweek.com